Blogging on antisemitism and the memory of the Shoah in Greece & Europe

Thessaloniki is changing

Dimitrios Tsermenidis, president of the Union of Public Transportation Workers of Thessaloniki uttered during a general assembly that «Jews are responsible for crucifying Christ», «This hall has the name Benaroya because God made a mistake by creating Jews» & «Unfortunately Hitler did not complete his work». Tsermenidis’ antisemitic rant was unequivocally condemned by other organizations present. Read more:

The history of Thessaloniki, (Salonica/Saloniki), is the history of the Jews and a small example of this can be seen in the travails of the main hall of the Workers Center of Thessaloniki (EKT) named after Avraham Benaroya. Who was Benaroya ? He is the grandfather of the modern greek workers movement by being the main personality behind the Federacion, the first socialist organization created in ottoman Salonica in 1909. When Salonica became part of the Greek State during the Balcan Wars he played a pivotal role in the incorporation of the Federacion into a new political formation called SEKE which would later become the Communist Party of Greece.

Abraham Benaroya and his family, most of them exterminated in Auschwitz. On the top left corner his son Lazarus who died as a corporal at the 50th Regiment on 30/1/1941 during…